"...Esther, don’t get in my way! I’m going to finish this sucker!" Marie shouts at me as she fires several metallic spears at Lucien, who barely dodges them. I advance on him, not wanting to give him any time to adjust to my fighting style.

I’m constantly using my blessing to create openings and chances to finish him, but Lucien is undoubtedly skilled, always staying alive by a thread.

"[Great Flame Devourer]" I use magic, generating a massive wave of red flames that opens like a mouth, swallowing Lucien and Marie before exploding with a loud sound. Immediately after, I charge forward, but my rush is blocked by a katana strike.

’He switched weapons.’ I leap back, narrowly dodging an immense white and yellow slash fired at me. Marie uses her blessing to create a giant sphere of earth.

"..." The gravity shifts, and everything begins to be violently pulled toward the sphere’s focal point. I strike out with my spear, ignoring the gravitational force. Lucien, with reduced mobility, is forced onto the defensive.

As Marie appears behind him with a hastily made, incomplete blade meant only to strike, Lucien kicks backward, hitting Marie and sending her flying.

"!!!" He nearly lands a blow on my cheek, and my entire body tenses, making me step back, gripping my spear tightly.

"Oh, finally retreating? This is my Soul Devourer. Finally, a weapon you don’t try to just parry, huh?"

’A weapon that wounds the soul directly... dangerous, but...’

"[Armor Breaker]" I hold the spear with one hand, pulling it all the way back as I use magic, and when I’m close, I swing it violently forward.

Lucien tries to defend, but the attack is so violently destructive that the katana snaps in two, a large gash opens across Lucien’s chest, and from the wound, an immense amount of blood gushes out as he spits blood.

’This fight has already lasted almost two hours...’ Marie appears floating atop a cloud and creates a kind of giant metallic structure, dropping it onto Lucien, who gets hit.

The structure dissolves into some kind of metallic sand, and I move away. I look at Lucien’s terrible state; he couldn’t hold out this long in a 2v1 fight.

"I’LL DESTROY YOU BOTH!!" He becomes enraged and starts accumulating magic. Around him, a completely dark blue barrier emerges as he brings his hands together, creating a sphere.

’So he decided to go all out to kill at least one of us...’ I see how much magic is in that sphere; with that much Hikishin, whoever takes that hit will have their body reduced to magical dust.

Marie starts to cowardly retreat as I think about what magic to use. It’s not an undefendable attack, but I’ll have to expend a lot of magic to block it, making Marie a problem afterward.

’...’ I use my blessing to its fullest, hoping for something to happen that will help me defeat Lucien with less damage.

Crack...

’Crack?’

CRACK

"...!?" I look up, Lucien does too, and even Marie stops flying as massive cracks spread throughout the domain. A violent wave of magic shoots out sideways, leaking out.

"This is... EVELYN, YOU CRAZY WOMAN!!" I shout at this lunatic as the cracks widen.

’This isn’t what I hoped for!! She wants to kill everyone in here, including herself?’ Suddenly, everything breaks, and all the domains begin to be violently compressed. The barrier on the outside expands violently, gaining huge cracks.

And then it starts to shrink. The size gets smaller and smaller, going from the size of a forest to a city, a town, a house, a dining room, a table, a ball, and finally, it shrinks so much that it becomes the equivalent of a ping pong ball.

The forest area literally vanished. All that remained outside was an immense hole because the domain compressed and took everything with it, while inside here, the space is still relatively survivable, but it’s so small.

"Damn it!" The domain begins to collapse, cracking violently. Magic starts being drained like water going down a giant hole because of the violence with which it leaks out. Lucien deactivates his domain, and Marie does too, to avoid dying.

’Wait, where did Evelyn learn to compress a domain so violently? And how did she have the magic to do this without dying? This... this is my chance!’ Only my domain and Evelyn’s remain, meaning 50% of the domain’s power is active.

I look at Lucien and then use my domain’s power, which makes everything inside here occur according to my will. I charge at Lucien, whose magic is still active.

He looks at me and tries to launch it at me, but I use a movement magic to dodge and appear behind him without giving him a chance, piercing his head with the spear from behind, opening a giant hole from one side to the other.

’...’ Quickly, I turn to Marie, but she’s 100 meters away from me. I expend a large portion of my remaining magic to knock Marie out with a mental attack spell, since I wouldn’t have the strength to kill her instantly due to my low magic reserves.

Crack

The two domains shatter like glass, forming a light dust cloud as we emerge inside a perfectly round hole that replaced the forest area. I look around, seeing that Augustus and Lucien are dead.

Laplace is... naked? And unconscious on the rocky ground, and Marie is also unconscious. Those who passed out were incapacitated, so they lost the fight.

"..." I look at the last person standing, Evelyn and Eve, who seems injured.

"What did you do?" I ask with a furious look. She almost killed everyone with this madness.

"I sacrificed 25 thousand puppets and half of Eve’s magic to compress the domain. It’s not that complex, and it was possible because I expanded my domain first and had the advantage."

"Domains inside have more space than outside. My domain alone is gigantic. Compressing it would still leave enough space equivalent to a mansion, even though I left a tiny space on the outside."

"But compressing a domain forces an immense expenditure. I knew you’d take the chance to finish Lucien and Marie, and I knew those two would drop their domains while you kept yours. I was watching everything. I just did what was most efficient."

’Is she serious?’ She just casually broke the laws of physics, generating such a massive effect that it completely erased the forest around us, leaving only an immense crater.

"Hahaha, you’ve gotten strong, Evelyn." I say honestly with a smile. I’m low on magic and injured, just as she planned.

"Strong, huh... it wasn’t strength. I just knew how to use what I had. The domain is a demon’s greatest advantage, after all."

"Yes, you’re right. Domains are the most powerful abilities a demon can use. So even someone ’weak’ like you can cause havoc by using a domain." This is why domains shouldn’t manifest in reality.

Because they devastate everything around them. Evelyn generated almost the same effect that would occur from creating a domain without the limitations of external space.

’You could erase kingdoms with this... but the cost is obvious.’ Evelyn looks terrible. Her puppet body has cracks everywhere; she would die if she weren’t a puppet.

Eve also has cracks on her body and is panting. Evelyn really sacrificed everything for this crazy attack.

"Evelyn, I can still fight." I point my spear at her, but the weapon shatters completely.

’Damn...’ I look at my own state, and only now do I notice the immense number of wounds, tears in my military uniform, and the damage the weapon sustained. My domain, not being physical, caused me the most problems when it was compressed.

"Evelyn, do you know how pathetic this whole battle seems?"

"Yes, I do. And that’s how I always felt when I was called a failure. It’s really ironic, don’t you think? I turned that incredible, legendary fight into something that looks like a pathetic show. Well, that’s how a puppet master operates."

"You build up the expectation, only to shatter it later. So, Esther, I hope you enjoyed the Show that I orchestrated, because your beloved Mistress of the Stage here has just started the climax of the Show, and I, the [Tragedy], saved the best for last." She uses her title while giving a slight bow.

"..."

"Now, where are my congratulations, Esther? This time, I controlled everything. I knew how every step you took would go. I practically made you lose in less than 3 hours of fighting." She speaks with that empty gaze and arrogant tone.

"I didn’t lose."

"Not yet, Esther. But you don’t have much magic left. I made sure of it."

"You didn’t care about sacrificing all those puppets to gain magic?" I ask, trying to get into her head.

"No. They were dolls made precisely to serve me. And they served me well."

"...No? You... you had planned to sacrifice them from the very beginning? You planned the entire fight around expanding the domain from the start and then compressing it when it was nearing the end?" I ask incredulously.

"..." Her silence answers me. She fooled me. When she expanded her domain, I judged she wouldn’t have any magic left for anything else because of its immense size, but she even used that information so I wouldn’t imagine other possibilities.

"Eve, finish off Esther. And [Desperation], you can come at me with everything you’ve got." Evelyn uses my title as Eve advances on me with her sword. I dodge, but much slower than usual due to exhaustion. I look at Evelyn, who watches it all. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"Hahahahahahahahaha" I burst out laughing with a huge smile on my face, hitting Eve with a punch and switching to physical combat. I feel a pleasure like no other.

Evelyn planned exactly as I would have planned. She really learned from what I taught her, and she improved upon it. Can I be any happier than this? I did this!! I created this monstrous, cold strategist!! I was the one who created this side.

"Let’s see if you’ll win, Evelyn!!" I reinforce my body with what little magic I have left, not using my blessing due to the cost. Eve charges with brutally fast rushes, but I’m careful about it.

Not underestimating her, because injured as we both are, Eve and I are evenly matched, and one mistake from me will be my end. That’s why I fight with everything, with my life on the line, because Evelyn "ruined" the spectacle on purpose to win, and I have to reciprocate that.

She stole the adrenaline, the excitement, the interest, the focus, the attention, and the genuine feeling that something incredible was coming from this fight. And in return, she gave only this uncomfortable sensation of emptiness and darkness.

And feeling her play with the emotions of her "audience" like this fills me with that sweet sensation that this incredible girl is all mine. If I am both the audience and a participant, then I’ll cut the strings and see if Evelyn obtains victory.